Network Rail boss told to give up £300,000 bonus for delays behind New Year travel chaos

Bonus: Iain Coucher, chief executive of Network Rail, was given a payout of £300,000 despite the chaos caused by over-running engineering work at New Year

The boss of Network Rail has been challenged to give up his six-figure annual bonus because of the travel chaos faced by passengers over the New Year.

NR chief executive Iain Coucher should not take up his £306,000 bonus after overrunning engineering work led to delays and disruption, according to the leader of one of the biggest railway unions.

Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, will raise the issue at NR's annual meeting in Edinburgh later today and will also criticise bonuses given to other company directors.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Doherty said Mr Coucher should follow the example of British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh, who gave up his six-figure bonus following the chaotic opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5.

'Willie Walsh rightly gave up his bonus because of the inconvenience suffered by passengers at Terminal 5. But even with disruptions, there was some sort of service out of Heathrow,' he said.

'That was not the case with Network Rail. Passengers on the West Coast line had no service for four days over the New Year because of the failings in engineering works.

'They will simply not understand how failure on this scale can be rewarded with a bonus of this size'.

Mr Doherty will ask members at the meeting to overturn the bonus but if they refuse he will urge Mr Coucher to donate the money to charity.

Chaos: Engineering work overran on the West Coast Main line at Rugby

NR's chairman, Sir Iain McAllister, responded: 'Bonuses are paid at Network Rail from the signal box to the boardroom, but only if passengers, over the course of the year, have seen a better rail service.

'With train punctuality now exceeding 90 per cent - an all-time high - safety at record levels and passenger satisfaction at historical highs, the service we provide has got better.

'Bonuses have been cut back to the tune of £3 million because of the mistakes made at the New Year.'

The Office of Rail Regulation has already fined Network Rail £14 million for the New Year overruns.

Up to 120,000 commuters were affected when work on the West Coast Main Line in the Midlands and at Liverpool Street station in London overran.

Work at Liverpool Street, which hit the services run by the One train company, overran by a day, prompting chaos as people struggled to return to work.

In Rugby, the engineers should have finished on December 30 but the line only reopened fully on December 4.